One morning in early December, the residents of Arlington, Virginia woke to find their city covered in several feet of snow. Looking out onto N Columbus Street, the street was bustling. Adults were warming up and cleaning off their cars, many of the women looking a bit harried with their hair up in messy buns and clothing mismatched, while young kids and teenagers alike were running around and playing with the soft, white flakes that were on the ground before them.

Although the snow looked pretty, he did find driving in the slush somewhat irritating as they went back and forth from the Navy Yard to their crime scene just off the Potomac River and back to the Navy Yard once more.

It had seemed like a fairly run-of-the-mill case upon first glance - if there could even be said to really be such a thing - until it became more and more evident that things were a lot more complicated than he and his team had initially thought.

A situation led to coordinated attacks just outside of Camp Russell as well as in D.C. It seemed that someone was leaking convoy routes and, given that those were changed at the last minute for operational security purposes, only an insider would have access to the aforementioned intel that caused the deaths of multiple U.S troops.

The following evening, Jethro found himself driving home after work considering how he was going to tell his family that he was leaving for Kabul, Afghanistan the very next morning. At least it was likely to be a few days, maybe a week, at the most.

Kelly and co. were coming over for dinner, an invitation that had been issued earlier in the week, which lent itself to everyone being there for the conversation. The timing of his deployment was less than ideal, given the fact that his son-in-law had just recently received orders to ship out to Afghanistan just after Christmas. Needless to say, Kelly was having a bit of a hard time knowing that Michael was about to go downrange.

Jethro sighed tiredly, a recent article from the Washington Post running through the combat veteran's mind: Suicide bombers strike near U.S. base in secure Kabul district, killing two guards.

KABUL — A pair of suicide bombers in Afghan military uniforms penetrated the most heavily guarded district in Kabul early Wednesday, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding five civilians in blasts at a checkpoint near the main U.S. military headquarters and half a dozen other international facilities.

Police officials said the bombers' target was probably Camp Eggers, the large U.S. military compound that occupies several square blocks of the capital's exclusive Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood. But a spokesman for the radical Islamist Taliban movement said the attack was aimed at a CIA compound and that "a large number" of insurgents had participated.

When Jethro read that article at Elaine's Diner, he really should've realized that things were liable to get interesting. As if their recent issues with the local Ijil Rebels cell and the attempt to blow up the Thanksgiving event for the members of the Joint Economic Committee and their families that Senator Roberts was hosting wasn't bad enough.

Pulling up to the house, he got out of his old pick-up and headed inside, immediately being greeted by his wife, Kelly, Michael, and the smell of Shannon's amazing cooking wafting out of their kitchen.

Taking off his coat and boots, he headed over to the couch where the trio was seated and gave his wife a less than chaste kiss before reaching for Paisley. "Come to Pappy."

The little girl babbled happily as Jethro took the eleven-month-old in his arms and sat down in the empty spot directly beside Shannon.

His daughter eyed him contentedly. "That girl has you wrapped around her finger."

He raised an eyebrow. Yeah, 'cause I wasn't the more permissive parent or nothing.

His daughter had wrapped him around her finger the first time he'd held her when he was finally home from that deployment in '82. In the same vein, he'd definitely been the more permissive parent out of Shannon and himself. Partly out of guilt for being gone for work as much as he was if he was honest.

His thoughts momentarily flickered back to their last camping trip together as a family in Virginia Beach before their lives did a complete 180.

They'd gone fishing that morning and, after cooking some of the fish they'd caught for lunch, the family decided to go for yet another ride down the beach.

They were about ten minutes out from their campsite when the bubbly seven-year-old girl just a few feet back got his attention. "I want to gallop, Daddy!"

Shannon evidently wasn't so sure about the request. "No, Kelly."

Jethro didn't see an issue with it. Kelly was extremely comfortable on a horse and the beach was wide open. Jethro gestured vaguely with his hand for Kelly to go ahead and pick up the pace. "Ah, let her go, Shannon."

Shannon chuckled slightly and had a look of fond exasperation. "Jethro..."

He was quickly pulled back to the present by his son-in-law's voice.

"And you don't, Babe?" Michael drawled.

Kelly just snickered in response.

He smirked. "Chewed on velcro name tags and all." When Kelly started teething, she'd quickly decided that she liked gnawing on the velcro name tag on his BDU blouse. He'd been slightly taken aback the first time it happened but also found it endearing.

Michael grinned. "Cute."

Shannon shook her head in amusement, smiling. "Surprisingly, I was more horrified by that than your dad was. Expected he might be a bit more concerned about his uniform being turned into a teething ring than he ended up being."

Kelly raised an eyebrow, blushing slightly. "Thanks, guys."

"Shall we go have dinner?" Shannon suggested.

"I could go for some chow," Michael agreed.

He dipped his head slightly. "Me too."

His wife put her arm around him. "So, put out any fires today?"

Jethro shot her a look. "Tried to. The fire seemed to spread."

As they were making their way into the kitchen, Shannon stopped him. Evidently, she could tell he wasn't saying something. "What aren't you saying?"

"Doesn't matter right now…" he started.

Shannon cut him off. "No, tell me. I can probably guess anyway."

Jethro sighed. "I know we've gotta talk Shan, but let's have dinner first and enjoy the evening. I assure you, it's nothing that can't wait until later. Can we talk about it then?" He knew that if they discussed it now they'd all be rather distracted.

His wife let out a breath. "Okay, but I want to discuss it after dinner, please."

"Of course, Shan. We'll discuss it later." Jethro stroked her arm as he tried to reassure her. "Let's go pound down some of that chow."

Heading into the kitchen, they dished up their plates and then the four adults all took a seat down at the kitchen table.

Shannon had Paisley seated on his lap, feeding her, while everyone ate and prattled on about whatever. Jethro didn't really want to get into the deployment situation just yet. He'd delve into that particular conversation after dinner.

Once they'd all eaten their fill, he and Shannon tidied up and they talked amicably for a good few minutes in the living room before his wife redirected the conversation. "So, you had something to discuss, Jethro?"

Jethro rubbed the back of his neck briefly before composing himself and eying both his wife and daughter. "Yeah, so I'm flying to Kabul first thing in the morning."

"Why?" Kelly asked tentatively.

How do I explain this? "There's been a security breach."

Michael eyed him, petting Bailey as he did so. "Camp Russell? Scuttlebutt around base has it that they're sending a couple of agents in to stop the bleeding as it were."

He gave his son-in-law a wry smile. "Never knew a Marine Staff Sergeant who believed scuttlebutt." Jethro adopted a more serious countenance. "In this case, though, you're right. Shipping out at 0700 to hopefully plug the leak."

Shannon's hand firmly gripped the arm of the couch beside her and their daughter was sitting there, hugging her own baby girl. "How long?"

Both girls quickly recovered and his wife put a hand on his knee. "Any idea?"

"Until the issue's resolved," he stated pointedly. "You know how it goes." It could be a couple of days or a couple of weeks. No way to tell. And there was always the chance of things going utterly wrong. Hell, if they managed to safely land in Kabul that would be quite the feat in and of itself.

Shannon sighed and then nodded. "That we do." She composed herself slightly. "Okay, so would anyone like another drink?"

He gave his wife a small smile. "I'll take one, Babe."